The House in Marsh Road

I enjoyed this unusual B movie, it's basically 75% domestic murder story, 25% supernatural thriller. Jean inherits a house, moves her drunken no good partner David in, and he meets someone else, a voluptuous blonde, Valerie Stockley. Valerie persuades David to kill his wife, but Jean is protected by a poltergheist, wonderfully named Patrick by the potty Irish maid Mrs O'Brien.

It's unusual to say the least, I can't think of many supernatural murder mysteries, but it works. Patricia Bainton appeared in some cracking films in the 50's and 60's, my favourite being The Third Alibi, and once again she's pretty good. Sandra Dorne is pretty fabulous it has to be said.

I'm struggling to believe it was made in 1960, it looks like it was should in the forties, production values are pretty poor, although the fire is pretty well done.

It seems unusual for a story with a poltergeist character to be set in the modern era (1960) but the story is convincing and the narrative is helped by the effective and restrained performances of the main characters. The music seems strangely reminiscent of Bernard Hermann's Vertigo score in places; in others of that used in the One Step Beyond TV series; surely a coincidence since the latter was produced at around the same time as this film.

So why isn't it the House on Marsh Road instead of in? Don't know.

Patricia Dainton and Tony Wright are Jean and David Linton always down to their last British pound thanks to his drinking and not working. Suddenly Jean inherits a house from an aunt, along with 1000 pounds. Back in 1960, that was the equivalent of 21,000 pounds today.

You'd think Tony would be happy. He now has the solitude he needs to write the great British novel. However, all he does is complain. When he learns at the local pub that a real estate investor would buy the place for 6000 pounds, he wants to sell.

Jean won't hear of it. She loves the place, despite the alleged presence of Patrick, a poltergeist so-named by the maid (Anna Sharp-Bolster) who comes in to work. Patrick, she says, is there to protect the relatives of the previous owners.

Tony writes book reviews and does some work on his novel, but he can't type. He hires a sexy local woman, Valerie (Sandra Dorne) who is going through a divorce. She's not interested in him when she finds out the house is Jean's. Well, just supposing the house suddenly became his?

Good, atmospheric, short black and white film, with excellent performances and a great ending! Very entertaining.

Missing from David Pirie's filmography in 'A Heritage of Horror' (1973) despite Pirie praising director Montgomery Tully's oeuvre overall as seeming "to be impressively consistent both in style and content". This overlooked little gem anticipating 'The Night of the Eagle' resembles a Chabrol marital drama produced by Val Lewton, as a poltergeist intervenes in a serious marital spat between Tony Wright & Patricia Dainton; with Sandra Dorne as the peroxide blonde Other Woman.

Recommended.

This nicely scary little ghost story is pretty straight-forward = in plot. A husband with a sexy mistress is trying to murder his wife, and a protect= ive (family-owned) poltergeist blocks him at every attempt. But the brief summary fails to convey some fine performances and lovely atmospherics t= hat rise above what is basically a "B" - level thriller. The women take act= ing honors -- Sandra Dorne is probably at her most-enticing ripeness as the buxom blonde divorcée who lures David Linton to his doom, and she pani= cs beautifully when trapped with her lover in the doomed house; Patricia Dainton is convincing, too, as the long-suffering wife of the promiscuou= s David. Third, for comic relief, Anita Sharp-Bolster is hilarious as the Irish housekeeper, who complains about "Patrick," whom she's named after her husband "because she never sees him" either! The black and white photography is moody and penetrating, as is the haunting music of John Veale (though it gets too loud and overrides the dialogue once or twice.= ) A hard-to-find video is available from several U.S. sources, both as "Invisible Creature" and "The House in Marsh Road."